John Among the Leaves

Someone asked me for an update on John.

We are going on our 4th year with John and he is as unpredictable as ever...  Or maybe I can say he is predictably in a bad mood for whatever reason he thinks is good.

When we first got John, when he was already eight or nine, and he would lunge and attack and had me jumping up onto chairs to stay out of reach of his teeth.  He growled when we walked by, he tried to bite when we picked up anything from the floor, he barked constantly and he couldn't be touched.  The vet who had given us John heard of our plight and she started coming to the house weekly to help us train him...  though I think the ones who got trained were the humans!  The vet still comes weekly but we don't need to spend much time talking about John anymore and just enjoy English time and coffe.  Tetsu and I no longer take John so seriously when he growls or feigns biting and he quickly changes back to a better mood.  I think the humans have got the upper hand! 

I feared for our cats' lives for the first few months, but the cats too showed John who was boss and after three years, he leaves the cats alone.  Barking has never been resolved and while he could be considered a great watchdog as he barks when someone comes to the door, drives noisily down our street or calls on the telephone (the last isn't so endearing), he barks when he is put in his kennel while we eat meals.  Better than having him beg and getting angry when we don't pass him something, but not much better.

We discovered early that John considers the kennel his territory and he would growl whenever anyone walked by, when we would fill his water dish, when we touched the door.  For the first year John would try to bite the person who closed the kennel door locking him in, but we noticed a few months ago he now happily goes into his kennel and waits expectantly for treats which he always gets when he's behaved obediently.  And for proof that John's behavior has gotten better, he is getting very fat with all the treats he is getting!

We still can't really touch John though if he sidles up to me, he will allow me to pat his head and on my braver days or when I read his mood as good, I will pet his back and neck and...  FACE!!!  My what progress!  That's only me though...  Tetsu still can't touch John.

Here too, John has decided that he will accept me as his superior and he rarely growls at me and will follow me around the house to sit at my feet, but if Tetsu steps into the room a growl rumbles.  John KNOWS that he's not supposed to growl at Tetsu and so immediately after the growl he will disgruntedly head for his kennel providing his own punishment.  A few seconds later he decides he's done his penance and comes back to sit beside me.  

John hates going for a walk (another reason for his increasing girth) and as he doesn't want to go with Tetsu and I can't walk him now, John is not getting much exercise... which he is happy about.  John loves food; his food, cat food ("Don't eat that!  That's expensive cat food!  That darn dog just ate ￥500 worth of cat food!) and the cats' milk, but he can actually wait patiently until whichever cat is finished before lapping up all the milk.

John can still be a handful, but we would be very lonely without him even with the heavy cat population!

Tetsu was so overjoyed to have John actually slip under his arm and rest on his leg.  "Take a picture, quick!  This is a first!"

The actual photo.  Even their smiles are the same!!

And here is a small quilt I just finished up this afternoon.  "John Among the Leaves".

I was just in the mood for autum and I pulled out some scraps.  John and the leaf proportions don't match up but it has a cute cartoony effect.

Up on my wall this season!

That's John these days!  Onery but loved!

Things from the past

Oldies...

A friend of mine visited for a few minutes last week bringing us cake and old photos that she had found in her album.  More than twenty years ago, our family and this Japanese family used to travel to California and back in the summers.  The kids and I spent the month at my brother's house with my mother and the S family spent the month with their grandparents in a nearby town.  Our kids were about the same age and everyone enjoyed traveling together and we even let Leiya and the daughter sit together on the airplane and Takumi and the son sit together, and Mrs. S and I would hand off their baby to each other allowing one of us to eat or sleep etc.  It was a wonderful arrangement much like a private field trip for all involved!

Another interesting thing about our traveling together was that while we've been friends in Japan we all spoke Japanese to each other and even on the airplane everyone conversed in Japanese.  But once we'd step onto American soil, for some reason, Mr. and Mrs. S and I (usually Tetsu wasn't with us in the summers) would switch to English and whenever we met at one of the grandparents' homes during the summer, the language would still be English.  On the airplane home I think we still spoke English but once our feet hit Japan we'd all switch back to Japanese for the rest of the year.  It was never decided that we'd do this, it just happened...

I sent these photos to Leiya and she was overjoyed!  From left to right.  The S family's youngest.  Their daughter and then Mrs. S.  MY MOTHER!!  Yes the same frail grandma in the later years of my blog!  That's me, and Marcy!  And there's Leiya in glasses still and short hair.  And down front is Kiana, my niece who just got married, and my nephew Colin.  How we all have changed!!!  It looks like the year was 2001.

Hah!  This must have been an even earlier photo with me, Leiya, Takumi, two of the S family's kids and there's my mother again!!!   I don't know how that date is supposed to be read.  Leiya must have been only 6 or 7...

Look at those sun bathing beauties!  I remember how every summer we'd be so amazed at how within minutes Leiya's skin would darken, just like photosensitive paper!!  I bet neither girl is still soaking up the sun like she did in her youth!

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More things from the past.

Marcy sent me some old crewel embroidery pieces she found in a back closet.  Wow!  We may be looking at the beginning of my love affair with hand work!  When I was 11, my parents began taking our family overseas for the summer and the first year we visited Japan and other Asian countries.  Another year we went to Europe, another year we went to Mexico and the Yukatan Peninsula.  One year we hit Alaska and another year we visited Spain and Morocco.  Knowing that the plane trips were going to be long and the waiting in airports and at hotels was going to be boring, my mother began buying me crewel kits and I think these were the first two I ever did.  I so looked forward to doing the handwork... probably more so than visiting far away countries.  

In later years I did larger pieces during our travels but I'm pretty sure they succumbed to time and moths.  I don't know how these survived (though the yarn has frayed in some places.)  They were up on the wall for a number of years and then it looks like my mother had them dry cleaned.  Marcy found them in a plastic bag and yesterday I mounted them on cardboard and stuck them into some old frames that were just the right size.

I'm so glad to have these back in my life after maybe 55, 56 years!

Elementary school

This month I got very little done due to spending a lot of time in bed.  I now have a new doctor whom I'll be going to and hopefully things will be looking up.  Honestly, I am rather ashamed of how low and weepy I can get when things are uncertain or downright bad, and though I cling to trying to stay grateful for the positive, I am not doing a good job at expressing my faith with an upbeat attitude.  Oh so quickly do I doubt! 

A couple of days ago I was asked by the elementary school principal if he could interview me for the school's little newspaper and so I stopped in at his office after my crosswalk duty.  (Yeah, I managed to do all five days of crosswalk duty!  It was touch and go for awhile there...)  I took advantage of my visit to snap a couple of pictures of the front entrance to the school.

This is the ikebana flower arrangement this week at the entrance.  One of my neighbors, who is an ikebana teacher, takes it upon herself to donate her time and flowers to decorate the small table near the front door each and every week.  She has done this for years and early every Monday morning she brings a bundle of flowers and spends a few minutes arranging them for the children, teachers, and any visitors to the school to enjoy.  

I'm actually not sure what thses are supposed to be...  cellophane ribbons on coat hangers?  Hmmm.  Probably an art project having to do with Tanabata which is a star festival the happens during the summer...  The ribbon streamers are the same though usually they'd be hung on bamboo fronds...  So maybe I'm wrong.  It makes a nice dash of color though.  The little boy in front of the classroom is a first grader.  I can tell because his regulation backpack has the flourescent yellow cover to make him more visible to traffic.  He is also wearing the regulation yellow hat for the same reason.  And his slip on shoes are called indoor shoes to wear inside the building...  The children leave their regular sneakers and shoes in a cubby at the school entrance.

And this is the school entrance where the children leave their outdoor shoes and change into the indoor slip-ons.  Everyone seems to have been trained to keep things neat!

Above the cubby is this beautiful origami poster that I would think the teachers or maybe school volunteers has made.  It looks too complex for children to make but maybe not...  Isn't it a lovely burst of color?!  And it says "We are happy when we greet each other with a smile."  

This has been an ongoing project of the teachers to get the children to say hello to people or "good morning", to smile and look a person in the eye when talking.  For some reason, children (and adults!) rarely just smile and talk with strangers or even acknowlege someone they don't know...  I even get ignored by some of them when I greet them in the mornings and they KNOW me!  I don't think Japanese children aren't specifically taught social skills at home and unlike many American children who jump into a conversation or are curious about someone new, there are not many boisterous, talkative students EXCEPT WHEN THE CHILDREN ARE TOGETHER and playing with each other.  They are as boisterous and loud and as happy as any other children then... but not very good at MAKING friends or even seeming friendly...   Thus the emphasis recently to get the children to return a greeting to someone or, gosh, make the first move and greet the other person first!

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Luka update!

Leiya found a nice nature park to take Luka for some outdoor playtime.

Doesn't that look like a fun place to explore?

I'D love to play with all the wood and be in the forest like that too!

Luka doesn't look like a baby anymore!  We're glad we got to see his baby stage when we were in the States just 5 months ago.  These kids grow up so quickly!!!

 

Songbirds GARDENS!

Nothing good to report on my hip and knees so we'll avoid that topic.

I did have a couple of good days and I managed to get the binding on my latest quilt and then spent the next day or so hand sewing it down.  I've got it on my wall to take photos but it and the previous quilt will be coming down and packed to send to Leiya.  She has a friend who is coming to Japan and if the package isn't TOO big, the friend will be able to take it back with her to the States.  

This is the small version of the Songbirds Garden quilt.  

And this is the large version.  It has three extra borders, two of them wide, around the last applique border.  Can you spot the fabric differences?

I had to buy new blue fabric for the large center triangles and I also bought white fabric for the applique.  I scrounged around in the original fabric and used left-overs in different places for the rest of the quilt.  My friend Mrs. N is also making this smaller version and we were able to use some of the left over faric for her quilt too... 

The machine quilting was done exactly the same in both quilts and they make a nice pair.  Originally, Leiya had said that she wasn't sure where she was going to find a place to hang the larger version and that was why I made the smaller version but she likes them so much together she's hoping her friend can bring both of them back to her.  

Whew!  I'm glad that big project can be marked FINISHED!

A Blah week

I'm having a frustrating month...  I had so counted on September being better than August when the heat and my sore hip did me in!!!  Alas, things have not looked up for quite awhile...

So today I'm sitting in the living room with my computer on my lap and I've got plasters on my knees and a pile of pills next to my chair.  Yes!  KNEES!!!!!  And I thought I was bad with hip pain!!!

My tale of woe went like this.  Last weekend I was sick in bed with a stomachache and canker sores and a low fever.  I'd worried about Covid but it probably wasn't that.  When better I went to my orthopedist to get advice on my hip again and I brought home three weeks of more painkillers.  But I also stopped at my regular doctor (we do that in Japan... Just drop in) and poured out my heart and my frustrations to him and of course told him about my stomach problems over the weekend.  He thinks the painkillers are messing with my stomach and he gave me something more for my stomach...  I really feel I can talk to him but my orthopedist who isn't chatty has the ability to take x-rays and MRI.

I did some machine quilting in the middle of the week and had hoped to be finishing that up today but for some reason my knees have started swelling and I can't walk!  That's even with the painkillers (which are also supposed to relieve inflamation.)  And I really haven't been moving much at all!  I promise!  In fact Tetsu has been doing most everything in the house these past couple of weeks while I just watch from my chair or the bed.  I feel pretty worthless right now.

I got binding made for my latest quilt and it would have been a good sitting-down project but I didn't get as far as sewing the binding down so that's not ready for me.  I don't have any hand projects!!!  I can't believe I'm so unprepared!!!  I'll have to go back to tatting crosses which I can do without any preparation...

In the meantime more random pieces of doodling.

Sick in bed.

And the real thing.

Machine quilting.

An art lesson with Shari Blaukopf.

And another.

A sketch of Leiya and Luka.  Well you can tell it is a woman and child but Tetsu didn't recognize Leiya...

And between bouts of aches and pains Tetsu took me to a cafe overlooking the countryside so you can see that not everything has been negative!

I'll try to be more cheerful in the next post...

  

Tsukimi (Moon viewing)

This past week some Japanese families celebrated Tsukimi which translates as "moon viewing".  It is no more than spending a few minutes or hours enjoying the light and the orb of the autumn full moon.  Some familes will purchase or make rice cake dango which are white balls of omochi, pounded rice cakes and they might display fronds of pampass grass.  Hot green tea is drunk and people will sit by the window in the late evening and savor the beauty of the moon.

I'm afraid I didn't do any of that and it went by us without me noticing.  BUT I read that in October there is still the chance celebrate the full moon in autumn style so I might put that on my calendar...

I did want to share some photos of the moon that I saw on Mrs. Furui's son's Instagram account and that I got permission to share.  K-san is Mrs. Furui's second son and he and Takumi went to kindergarten together and were great friends.  He is now a doctor in a faraway city but his hobby is taking spectacular photographs!  This is Himeji Castle which is located in the southern part of Japan (though not the southernmost...  I've never been there.)

Appropo of Tsukimi, but not of K-san's photography, last night Tetsu and I needed to buy something at the local department store and we decided to have dinner at McDonald's.  After our order was delivered to our table, I noticed the paper placemat that McDonald's uses in this Tsukimi season.  A Japanese lord enjoying some McFries while looking at a golden chicken nugget in the sky!  The byline says "In the autum night, nug-GET!"

Also to celebrate the season, McDonald's offers a Tsukimi Burger which is just a hamburger with all the dressings and a fried egg, much like Egg McMuffins.  The round, yellow part of the egg is supposed to be the moon!

We ordered too much to eat and so when we were leaving and balancing our left-over nuggets and french fries, the girl at the counter offered to bag our left-overs for us.  McDonald's even has beautiful Tsukimi bags!

And while I'm on the subject of McDonald's I'll reminise about when I first came to Japan as a missiony associate to teach English.  I was living in far away Morioka and this was before the bullet train, and every six months I had to travel 5 or 6 hours to the major city of Sendai where there was a Japanese immigration office to get a visa renewel.  It was a major journey but I always rewarded myself with a Big Mac and fries and a coke after I left the immigration office and before I traveled back home.  There were only a few McDonald's in Japan at the time and though I wasn't a huge fan of the hamburger while I lived in California, coming to the back side of Japan, it was my only brush with American culture every 6 months.  Such a treat!!!  

Here is K-san's most recent moon viewing photo.  You can seem more of his amazing night time photography on Instagram at:  woodstock2795

Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/woodstock2795

  

Random again

Gadzooks!  It's been a week and I can't think of much that's interesting to write about.  Is this because of my mostly retired state, or because of the pandemic changes, or because my interests have changed?  

I spent one morning getting some applique ready for Mrs. N.  She wants to make the center medallion of the Songbird's Garden quilt... which I am also doing again, and so I offered to set up the applique borders for her... AS LONG AS SHE PREPPED HER OWN APPLIQUE LEAVES!!!  I had just finished cutting out, ironing and starching to the template, my own 80 leaves and I really didn't want to do it again...  

"If you'll make the leaves, I'll do the eight flowers for you..."  

She had popped in long enough for me to teach her the technique for prepping the leaves, and I did the flowers and stems and got them placed on the borders for her.  I'm finishing up my own applique borders this week. 

Another day Leiya Facetimed us to show us Luka's reaction to opening a package of used picture books that we'd sent him.  It was so fun to see how excited he was!  And so of course, Grandma and Grandpa have to spring into action again and go out and find him more used picture books!  

Swimming when I can.  My hip pain doesn't interfere with swimming.  

You do realize that all these doodles of me in my bullet journal make me look much more slender than I really am.  Wishful thinking!!!  I'm actually rather dumpy these days.

Yesterday we went to the movies for the first time in three years, and we saw Bullet Train with Brad Pitt.  Tetsu loved it, but it was a bit too gory and bloody for me.  I had just "read" the English translation of the book in my Audiobook app and it was interesting to see how the book changed into the movie.  Oh, I've missed movie theater popcorn!  Delicious!

Somewhat worrisome was an Instagram post from Julieta saying that their house isn't far from the California Fairview Fire.  I've talked with both Julieta and Takumi and they say that they aren't in danger.   

Not newsworthy, but I thought I'd show you how we've been getting our rice this past year.  We purchased a 15 pound bag of rice from Tetsu's friend who is a rice farmer and to start eating it Tetsu needed to take the bag over to a rice polishing booth and have the rice turned from brown (with the hulls) to white.  The polishing is all done automatically, much like stepping into a photo booth.  Pour in your rice, set the level of polishing you want done, drop in coins and the polished rice will begin pouring into another bag.  In our part of the countryside, polishing booths are set up in the parking lots of almost all supermarkets and hardware stores.   

Okay, that was a pretty random post!